Amanieu VII (died 1326) was the Lord of Albret from 1298 until his death; the son of

Amanieu VI Amanieu VI (? — after April 1272) was a French nobleman, the Lord of Albret (French: ''Seigneur d’Albret''). The lordship (''seigneurie'') of Albret, in the Landes, gave its name to one of the most powerful feudal families of France in the Mid ...

. He was an ally of the English and sat on the King's Council during the reigns of

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...

and Edward II of England. As a relative of the

Plantagenet The House of Plantagenet () was a royal house which originated from the lands of Anjou in France. The family held the English throne from 1154 (with the accession of Henry II at the end of the Anarchy) to 1485, when Richard III died in batt ...

s and of the sitting pope (

Martin IV Pope Martin IV ( la, Martinus IV; c. 1210/1220 – 28 March 1285), born Simon de Brion, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 February 1281 to his death on 28 March 1285. He was the last French pope to have ...

) and one of the most powerful lords in

Gascony Gascony (; french: Gascogne ; oc, Gasconha ; eu, Gaskoinia) was a province of the southwestern Kingdom of France that succeeded the Duchy of Gascony (602–1453). From the 17th century until the French Revolution (1789–1799), it was part o ...

, he was the recipient of conspicuous royal largesse. In 1286 Amanieu ended a long private war with Jean Ferrars, the English

seneschal The word ''seneschal'' () can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context. Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ...

of Gascony, in return for 20,000 ''

livres tournois The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...

'' from Edward I. His son Bernard Ezi II succeeded him in Albret and on the Council. Amanieu used the French occupation of Aquitaine during the war between Edward I and

Philip IV of France Philip IV (April–June 1268 – 29 November 1314), called Philip the Fair (french: Philippe le Bel), was King of France from 1285 to 1314. By virtue of his marriage with Joan I of Navarre, he was also King of Navarre as Philip I from 12 ...

from 1294 to 1303 to expand his own authority at the expense of the ducal administration. Between 1310 and 1324 he continued to increase his independence from the English government in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

by appealing a successive number of sometimes trivial quarrels before the

Parlement of Paris The Parliament of Paris (french: Parlement de Paris) was the oldest ''parlement'' in the Kingdom of France, formed in the 14th century. It was fixed in Paris by Philip IV of France in 1302. The Parliament of Paris would hold sessions inside the ...

. In 1324 he completed his defection from the English cause by joining the French during the short

War of Saint-Sardos The War of Saint-Sardos was a short war fought between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of France in 1324. The French invaded the English Duchy of Aquitaine. The war was a clear defeat for the English, and led indirectly to the overthrow of ...

References

* Labarge, Margaret Wade. ''Gascony, England's First Colony 1204–1453''. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1980. *Lodge, Eleanor C. ''Gascony under English Rule''. Kennikat Press: 1926. * Sumption, Jonathan. ''The Hundred Years War I, Trial by Battle'' Year of birth unknown 1326 deaths House of Albret {{France-noble-stub